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Avidya – The first affliction

Day 112 – I love this reading so much about avidya, or spiritual ignorance, which Rolf describes as us “arranging our externals in just the right way [that] doesn’t bring us the happiness we hoped it would.” We discover that “the resting place is always…just over the next hill. And we have grown tired.” Therefore, we come to yoga in the grip of avidya.

Today’s practice was energy-building, life-affirming, root-chakra work that resonated with me, along with this reading. I am whole. I am peace. I am one with all. Indeed, Rolf agrees: “We are an aspect of the divine spirit, and this will always be true.” I don’t piecemeal it quite that way, but I also don’t embrace it wholeheartedly either, from which my avidya stems.

This reading is beautifully placed. I, the reading activist, defy the system by reading poetry every day, preaching literature and bold books about real and imagined human issues in order to shed light on what we truly are–humans, imperfectly perfect. We can certainly make better strides toward a better and kinder world. After all, as Rolf writes: “Our brothers and sisters who have gone before us have left many road maps to the truth. We sing the truth to one another in pop songs, write it to one another in poems, build statues and cathedrals in honor of it. We scream truth at one another in heated arguments, whisper it in intemate moments.”

Indeed, our divinity “surrounds us, beguiles us, nourishes and supports us in our darkest hour.” It is light. It is love. It is peace. As on the mat, it is possible off. As above, so below. Beauty surrounds us. It’s all that (and Love, too).